Segun Oluwaniyi

Baba, honest opinion. If Shola had gone and declared himself to Nigeria, what would you have thought? Having Shola play on two of my favorite teams would be incredibly soul crushing. My heart sinks everytime I see the guy. I avoid his thread on here because it depresses me. It probaly wouldn't be all that bad, until Shola was standing ten yards offside during a crucial qualifier in Swaziland or some equally s***** place. Honestly I'm amazed he's not in our squad right now. Being a s*** player from England is like a free pass in. Last year Kayode Odejayi, possibly the worst player in the world ever, got a cap for us.

Ronaldo and Optimistic Nut are reaching NE5 esque levels when it comes to Obafemi Martins and Michael Owen.

This article was written long time ago man. I actually enjoy this guy Bill Simmons' stuff quite a bit. Really enjoy reading him on the NBA. Very funny and informative stuff. His article on football aren't as informative, but they are still worth a laugh.

We received more than 9 million pounds in transfer fees while he was here. Martins and Duff were both pretty instrumental for our team that year tbh. Sibierski was decent as well. Neither Rossi nor Onyewu were poor signings. It's a shame Rossi wasn't given more of a chance though. The rest were just desperation cover moves. Low risk. Low reward. If I was listing the people who caused this situation, the top three would be Sheperd, Ashley, and Souness. I'm not sure of the exact order, but that's the top three.

Roeder didn't do much wrong imo. The team we had that season was the worst we have had in the Premiership. His buys have been alright imo (well compared to the horriffic nature of everyone elses at least) and he even led us on a nice European campaign. Big contradiction there imo... He only bought two players. Other than that he was left with loans and free transfers. He certainly did not make radical changes to the team. Not much money was spent while he was here.

Roeder didn't do much wrong imo. The team we had that season was the worst we have had in the Premiership. His buys have been alright imo (well compared to the horriffic nature of everyone elses at least) and he even led us on a nice European campaign.

The fact that you have not included a photo of Joe Kinnear, or at least the mildly retarded cupcake dog, is a travesty and absolutely blasphemous. edit: Never mind.

At least he gave us the illusion that we had some quality in midfield.

Bloody Monaco. Can't keep a lead. Didn't see the match, but the result is not a surprise. Lyon have been drawing at home constantly this year. This is Marseille's year. I was able to catch some of the second half of our match against Grenoble after church, and we were awesome again. Taye Taiwo is an absolute monster. His defending has improved, and he still has a rocket of a left foot, shown by his two goals today. Can't believe some of my more ignorant countrymen think that the waster Celestine Babayaro was ever better than this man. Besides that, the team is in absolutely fantastic form. Some great victories recently The title race remains incredibly tight though. Top six could all win. Lyon v. Bordeaux next week should be a great match. Really loving the Ligue this year. *Boumsong is a decent player man. I know it's had to believe, but he's pretty solid. Don't know how he gets into the French NT though.

Yohann Pele is really highly rated by the press and such, but he's never really impressed me when I've seen him for Le Mans. Looked dodgy in all honesty. Mandanda has passed him in the pecking order.

Taiwo! Man has a rocket in his foot man. 3-0 Marseille. Really hope Monaco get something against Lyon tonight. Would be great to end the weekend top of the league.

Who exactly possessed the ball for Newcastle? I mean Shola? Butt? Owen? The only viable answers are Guthrie and Duff.

Ya I'm sure he reall loves the club man. Keep telling yourself that. In fact keep saying that when he's pulling on some midlevel Serie A teams kit next year telling the fans how much he loves them. He does not care about Newcastle and he will leave in the summer. This is clear. Stop fooling yourself. I've supported the guy for a while because he's had a real tough period in his life, but it is ridiculous to literally just not show up to a game of this magnitude.

Butt is awful man. There's no point in having a DM if they're just going to give the ball away. It defeats the purpose.

I got the idea that Shola was simply Martins direct replacement. The formation didn't change. That's what I got at least. Shearer said himself before the game that all 3 would have started (Oba, Shola and Owen). Ah. I misunderstood that then. It will be interesting to see who his replacement was then. Surprised that Jonas didn't have a place, even with Oba's rubbish. It's very important to have at least one of them in the imo. The reports say we were pinned in our own half in the first period. So Jonas would have been crucial.

I got the idea that Shola was simply Martins direct replacement. The formation didn't change. That's what I got at least.

He's just stupid, has no footballing brain and doesn't understand why he won't get to play. I don't agree with the action he took, but I can see his point. Tell me what Owen offered today, at least Oba has pace that could have troubled them in behind. I used to be a fan of Owen as he was very sharp and a lethal striker, but today it was Owen not Ranger who's lack of physical presence I worried about, he was bossed around like he was 12. No. Oba has no point. He was starting. He was a significant part of the team today. And he didn't show up. Either he was injured, or he's in a lot of trouble. He's making enough money to be okay with starting, while not being the main man. Got to say I was stunned when I got back from church and all of this had happened. We maybe could have won if he and Jonas played (didn't see the match, so don't judge me if I'm way off base)

The game at Anfield is really end to end. Things are happening so fast! Some awful defending too. Don't know why Ballack still starts for Chelsea. He's basically a glorified Kevin nolan at this point.

Goodness, how many times must ESPN play the Champions League theme. It's played almost every second the match isn't on. I think Barcelona will struggle against Liverpool/Chelsea next round as they won't pass them through the middle. Still, they have the options to change their game slightly.

Bayern have been awful for a while now, I wonder if Klinnsman keeps his job much longer.

You must have missed that season when he was the best striker in the entire world.

Kanoute was pretty good in England in all honesty. He was placed in a great situation at Sevilla as well.

They got humped 5-1 at the weekend by Wolfsburg n all although Grafite scored an unbelievable goal for one of them. Well worth watch at a popular video clip site. Love that goal. I swear when I first saw that goal, I was making the same sounds the announcers from AND ONE basketball tapes make. He truly embarrassed some "top class" players there. Really enjoy the way the ball slowly rolls into the net. This Chelsea-Liverpool game is played at an absolutely insane pace.

Bayern allowed five from Wolfsburg at the weekend as well. Don't know what their problem is.

well said. don't have the wingers for a 4-4-2, don't have the central midfielders for a 4-4-2, and we don't have the strikers for it either. Guthrie in particular is ready made for a 4-3-3 as his technique and passing are excellent but his strength and his engine all stand out as being sub-standard in a midfield two. give him that extra body in the middle and all a sudden those two things arent an issue - bit like how Butt looked fine at the end of last season. I would personally play Guthrie-Geremi-Jonas across the middle, Geremi sitting back like Butt did, Guthrie in Ron's position on the right and Jonas the non-stop running machine that was joey barton, only better. Up-front you have Owen in the hole, dropping back into midfield when needed and making runs forward when not, with Martins and one more (Xisco, Smith, Ameobi, Carroll, Viduka) capable of playing with their back to goal. I also agree with you that yesterday was one-dimensional from what i saw. there was little in the way of diagonal runs, first touch passing or other invention that pulls defenders out of position. it was very basic and direct as if the tactics were 'get it into the box quickly for owen'. in a way i am disappointed that shearer's assistant has been Dowie. I know he needed to bring in a training ground coach but, while Dowie is apparently clued up on coaching methods he is not too bright tactically. calderwood, dowie, hughton - i dont really see any of those as someone who can pull shearer aside and suggest a novel take on tactics or spot out a subtle problem in the balance as a Venables would've (or create an inventive solution to our problems as keegan did last season). Good insights there and I'm inclined to agree with you. The midfield is woefully underperforming, whatever we have tried with the 4-4-2 has floundered both this season and last season. Not the system at fault it's just we don't have the players with enough confidence or ablity to string two passes together. We need either Carroll or Xisco to play as a target man with Oba and Owen playing off him. A midfield three would be Jonas, Butt and Guthrie. If we are going to play 4-3-3, I'd prefer we'd not drop Nolan. We should at least give him a chance in the position in which he has flourished during his career.